It looks better.  No, not my feet – my yard!  It was such a beautiful day here in South Bend, Indiana.  I just had to take my blistered feet out and tackle some outdoor projects that were long overdue.  This was one of those all too familiar times where I started a “small” project that kept growing until it consumed nearly the whole day.

 I began by deciding that I needed to clean up a clump of mulberry trees that were taking over the back corner of my property.  How did they get so big?  I know I had just cut them back a year ago . . . or two . . . or was that when we moved here?  Wow!  Is it possible I let them go for 5 or 6 years?  By the looks of them when I began today, I suppose it is possible.  Why does a little growth of a pesky plant seem so innocent that I do nothing about it until it has become this huge problem?  Wouldn’t it  have been easier to cut them back each year while they were small? 

There can’t be a life lesson in that.  Surely I wouldn’t let small pesky problems go unnoticed and unpruned in my life?  I wouldn’t wait for a huge overgrowth of problems before deciding something needs done, would I?  Ok, perhaps I have . . . perhaps you have.  Maybe it is time for a self-exam.  Is there a destructive habit . . . practice . . . sin that needs dealt with while it is still small?  Is there something that has overgrown life and is sucking all the joy and contentment out of it?  Then deal with it!  Allow the pruning to take place.  Enjoy the improved look and feel!

The mulberry clearing led me to pruning a couple of maple trees while I had the equipment out.  These were even worse than the mulberry, if that is possible.  They needed dealt with even before I moved here.  I had to get the chain saw out for this pruning.  That is going to leave a scar!  The trees do look better and it will improve their health in the long run.  Sometimes our choices in life lead us to needing a major pruning.  A pruning that leaves scars, but also leaves us prepared for a more healthy life.

Once the pruning was done, it was time to get the garden tilled up for spring.  With the roto-tiller on the Kubota, it is normally not that big of a task.  However, I decided the garden needed to be larger.  This meant breaking new ground.  To try to keep grass growing in the new garden to a minimum, I decided to use the loader to scrape the sod off the strip of ground that is to become garden.  This actually went well, it just took time.  Then came the tilling of the ground.  Even with decent equipment, it took several passes across the new ground to begin to break up and loosen the soil.  It had been lawn for so many years, it wasn’t eager to be loosened up and made ready for garden seeds.  It had become compacted and hard.  With much effort and persistence though, it will become good, fertile ground – ready to produce a crop.  How much effort will it take to soften the ground of life?  When we are hard, or encounter someone who is hard, it is worth the work and effort that it takes to change into good, fertile ground. 

Jesus has the love and patience to prune the most overgrown life and the power to break up the hardest of hearts and make it into the softest, most productive life ever.

All-in-all, it was a productive day.

I thought they were ready.  I really did.  They weren’t!

New shoes . . . I hate them.  Oh, I love buying them . . . I love looking for just the right pair . . . but wearing them? 

Give me my old shoes that are worn through the bottom.  They are comfortable.  They are flexible.  They are . . . not going to cause blisters!

You would think I would learn.  Ok, maybe you know me and you don’t think that ;-).  A couple of years ago I flew down to a conference in the Smoky Mountains and bought a new pair of hiking boots.  I then proceeded to wear them on a 5 mile hike to a beautiful waterfall.  I swore then that I had learned my lesson . . . never do a 5 mile hike in a new pair of shoes.  Well . . . you guessed it . . . I did it again.  We did our 5 mile family walk tonight and I wore a pair of shoes that I had only worn a couple of times before. 

Can you say blisters?  Oh, it gets better.  Midway through the walk, the back of my heels were hurting so bad that I decided I had to take my shoes off.  See . . . I learned.  Don’t do a 5 mile walk in new shoes, take them off half way through and finish the walk in stocking feet.  Smart move.  Now I have blisters on the backs of my heels AND on the bottom of my feet.

Isn’t that a lot like life?  We either avoid new things because we are sure they will be painful or we rush into new things before the time is right and then we face the blisters.  And how often does the pain of the blisters of life cause us to make some smart move that simply spreads and increases the pain? 

The shoes aren’t bad.  As a matter of fact, I really like these shoes.  I should have put more time and preparation into breaking in these shoes before wearing them on such a long walk.  The timing was wrong.  We weren’t ready for each other.  I am confident that there will come a day when these shoes and I will share a lot of miles together.  The pain will subside.  The blisters will heal.  The shoes will become more comfortable . . . more flexible.  We’ll get used to each other.  The newness will fade.  The bottoms will wear out.  And I’ll wonder how I’m ever going to find and break in another pair of shoes that could ever be as comfortable as what these will become.